John Jenkins is the leading scorer for the Mavericks in the preseason so far, and while that’s in large measure because of the absence of some of the team’s key figures, he’s making a strong impression, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details. Jenkins, who left the Hawks in free agency this summer three years after Atlanta picked him 23rd overall, just wishes he could have shown off his game sooner, Sefko relays.
“I put in the work for three years and felt I earned a chance in Atlanta,” Jenkins said. “But I didn’t get it. A lot of guys just need an opportunity. I wasn’t a first-round pick for nothing.”
Jenkins is one of 15 Mavs with a fully guaranteed salary for this season, so his place on the roster seems relatively secure, Sefko posits, even though four Dallas players have partial guarantees. See more from around the Southwest Division:
- The Spurs were tense in between the time they agreed to trade Tiago Splitter to the Hawks for virtually nothing aside from the cap space necessary to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and the moment Aldridge agreed to sign with San Antonio, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News. “We didn’t know what the outcome would be,” coach/president Gregg Popovich said. “But we knew if we wanted to change the team and add talent, it’s something we had to do.”
- The partial guarantee on Bo McCalebb‘s contract with the Pelicans is worth $50K, but it won’t kick in unless he sticks through October 27th, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). McCalebb is on a two-year, minimum-salary deal, Pincus also notes.
- Jerome Jordan‘s deal with the Pelicans is a non-guaranteed arrangement for one year at the minimum, and the same is true of the pact between Mirza Begić and the team, which New Orleans abruptly waived earlier today, as Pincus also shows on his Basketball Insiders salary page.